Midwest High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Drug Market Analysis
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ARCHIVED Product No. 2007-R0813-015 Midwest High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Drug Market Analysis May 2007 U.S. Department of Justice Preface reporting, information obtained through interviews This assessment provides a strategic overview with law enforcement and public health officials, of the illicit drug situation in the Midwest High and available statistical data. The report is Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA), high- designed to provide policymakers, resource plan- lighting significant trends and law enforcement ners, and law enforcement officials with a focused concerns relating to the trafficking and abuse of discussion of key drug issues and developments illicit drugs. The report was prepared through facing the Midwest HIDTA. detailed analysis of recent law enforcement CANADA Area of Midwest HIDTA MT ND MN SD WI MI WY IA NE IN OH WALSH IL RAMSEY UT MO WARD CO KS KY GR AN D FOR KS TN NM OK AR GA NORTH DAKOTA TX MS AL BUR- LEIGH MORTON CASS RICHLAND MINNESOTA BROWN CODINGTON LAWRENCE BROOKINGS WISCONSIN MEADE SOUTH DAKOTA BEADLE PENNINGTON CUSTER MINNE- HAHA FAL L RIVER LINCOLN YA NK T ON BLACK HAWK UNION CLAY WOOD- IOWA DAKOTA BURY LINN MARSHALL SCOTTS BLUFF MADISON DODGE SC OTT POLK POTTAWATTAMIE MUSCATINE NEBRASKA PLATTE DOUGLAS APPANOOSE HALL SARPY DAWSON LANCASTER ILLINOIS JEFFERSON GAGE BUCHANAN MARION PLATTE CLAY LEAVENWORTH WYANDOTTE ST. CHARLES COLORADO BOONE KANSAS SHAWNEE FRANKLIN SALIN E JACKSON COLE FRANKLIN JOHN SON BARTON MIAMI MISSOURI ST. LOUIS FI NNEY JEFFERSON SEDGWICK ST. LOUIS CITY CAPE GR EENE GI RAR DEAU CRAWFORD JASPER TEXAS SEWARD LABETTE SCOTT CHRISTIAN CHEROKEE OKLAHOMA ARKANSAS HIDTA County Figure 1. Midwest High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area. This assessment is an outgrowth of a partnership between the NDIC and HIDTA Program for preparation of annual assessments depicting drug trafficking trends and developments in HIDTA Program areas. The report has been vetted with the HIDTA, is limited in scope to HIDTA jurisdictional boundaries, and draws upon a wide variety of sources within those boundaries. This document may contain dated information. It has been made available to provide access to historical materials. ARCHIVED Midwest High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Drug Market Analysis Strategic Drug Threat Drug Trafficking Organizations, Developments Criminal Groups, and Gangs • Mexican drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) Drug trafficking organizations are complex are now expanding their transportation and dis- organizations with highly defined command- tribution networks in eastern Missouri, particu- and-control structures that produce, transport, larly in the St. Louis metropolitan area, an area and/or distribute large quantities of one or more within the HIDTA where they had previously illicit drugs. maintained minimal presence. Criminal groups operating in the United States are numerous and range from small to moder- • An increasing Mexican population within the ately sized, loosely knit groups that distribute one area has facilitated the control that Mexican or more drugs at the retail and midlevels. DTOs maintain over drug trafficking and has Gangs are defined by the National Alliance of enabled them to use small communities in the Gang Investigators’ Associations as groups or Midwest HIDTA region with large Hispanic associations of three or more persons with a populations—such as Dodge City, Garden City, common identifying sign, symbol, or name, the Great Bend, and Liberal, Kansas; Joplin, Mon- members of which individually or collectively ett, and southwestern Missouri; and Fremont, engage in criminal activity that creates an Grand Island, Lexington, and Norfolk, atmosphere of fear and intimidation. Nebraska—as transit hubs for larger markets. • The distribution of white heroin in St. Louis is • State pseudoephedrine control laws together increasing; the level of white heroin distribution with law enforcement and public awareness in the city is now equivalent to that of Mexican programs have contributed to reduced domestic black tar heroin. Most white heroin samples methamphetamine production since mid-2005. have tested as South American heroin; some Some local methamphetamine production con- have tested as Southwest Asian. tinues, however, placing citizens and law enforcement at risk. • Kansas City and St. Louis have emerged as signif- icant transshipment centers for cocaine, Mexican • Local methamphetamine producers are exploit- ice methamphetamine, and marijuana smuggled ing the region’s lack of centralized reporting on by Mexican DTOs to primary drug markets in the pseudoephedrine purchases by buying pseudo- Northeast Region, including New York. ephedrine in quantities at or below state thresh- olds from multiple pharmacies until they obtain HIDTA Overview enough to produce methamphetamine. The Midwest HIDTA region consists of 74 1 • Powder cocaine is becoming increasingly avail- counties spread across six states. (See Figure 1 on able in several Midwest HIDTA markets. Tradi- page 1.) The Midwest HIDTA counties are located tional crack cocaine distributors in some areas in the central United States between western and are now selling powder cocaine to users with eastern drug markets; they are connected by an instructions on how users can convert the pow- extensive transportation infrastructure that renders der into crack. The distributor can therefore the HIDTA a significant transshipment area for drug avoid stiffer penalties associated with crack dis- traffickers. Most major interstate highways in the northern United States pass through and intersect in tribution. Also, several local law enforcement the Midwest HIDTA region, facilitating the trans- agencies report that teenagers and young adults portation of illicit drugs from the U.S.–Mexico are increasingly abusing powder cocaine. (Southwest) border and, to a lesser extent, from the 1. The six states are Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, and North Dakota. 2 This document may contain dated information. It has been made available to provide access to historical materials. ARCHIVED National Drug Intelligence Center U.S.–Canada (Northern) border to drug markets Mexican DTOs and criminal groups control the throughout the United States. The region’s primary transportation and wholesale distribution of meth- markets2 (Kansas City, Omaha, and St. Louis) and amphetamine, cocaine, and marijuana in the area. secondary markets (Cedar Rapids and Des Moines, Members of Mexican DTOs and criminal groups Iowa; Fargo/Grand Forks, North Dakota; Sioux have hidden themselves within growing Mexican City, Iowa/Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Springfield, communities in suburban and urban areas in an Missouri; and Wichita, Kansas) serve as distribu- attempt to avoid law enforcement detection and to tion centers for major U.S. drug markets as well as expand their drug distribution networks. African smaller rural counties in the HIDTA. The increas- American and, to a lesser extent, Hispanic street ing distribution of Mexican ice methamphetamine gangs control retail drug distribution in the Midwest and the widespread abuse of crack cocaine and HIDTA metropolitan areas and contribute to violent associated violence are the primary drug threats in crime in those areas (see Table 1 on page 17). these market areas. Local independent dealers are the principal retail distributors in the Midwest HIDTA rural areas. Most illicit drugs used in and transported through the Midwest HIDTA region enter the Drug Threat Overview United States from the Southwest Border. Mexican Methamphetamine abuse and distribution are DTOs transport substantial quantities of ice meth- escalating in the Midwest HIDTA region, straining amphetamine, cocaine, marijuana, and heroin limited local law enforcement, public health, and across the Southwest Border to distribution hubs in social services resources in many areas, particu- Arizona (Tucson and Phoenix), California (Los larly in rural counties, according to state and local Angeles), and Texas (Dallas, McAllen, and El officials. State methamphetamine precursor control Paso). The drug shipments are usually commingled legislation, as well as law enforcement and public with legitimate goods in tractor-trailers and trans- awareness programs, have reduced the number of ported along interstate highways to and through the clandestine methamphetamine laboratories in the Midwest HIDTA region. Mexican traffickers also region. Mexican DTOs and criminal groups, how- use private and rental vehicles and virtually all ever, have flooded the market with high-quality U.S. highways, state highways, and local roads to Mexican ice methamphetamine to meet the demand transport drugs from the Southwest Border into and created by decreased local methamphetamine pro- through the HIDTA region. duction. These trafficking organizations distribute multikilogram quantities of ice methamphetamine The Midwest HIDTA region’s border with Can- from distribution centers in Kansas City, St. Louis, ada is also an entry point for drugs available in the and Springfield, Missouri; Kansas City and Wichita, area. North Dakota and Canada share a 300-mile- Kansas; Omaha and Grand Island, Nebraska; and long border with 18 official land ports of entry Sioux City, Iowa, to the area’s consumer markets. (POEs). (See Figure 2 on page 7.) These POEs, along with a number of unofficial crossing points Crack cocaine distribution and abuse are perva- in the rural and isolated areas between POEs, sive in urban areas of the HIDTA region. Mexican provide drug smugglers